1000 Tiny Birds

Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art, 2023-04-14

I’ll be honest, this visit was somewhat marred by my phone acting up and shedding about 1% of battery life a minute, which filled me with a deep anxiety that genuinely distracted from my ability to appreciate what I was seeing. Nonetheless! A battery of things to see. Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised, a 24ft x 24ft mutating artwork (“artificial intelligence” gets thrown around, of course) greets you as you enter, and is genuinely impressive to just watch for a while, all vivid colours and swirls. The main event is To See Takes Time, an exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work, itself an evidence of mutation in its own way; O’Keeffe’s paintings and drawings continuously, abstractly, reoccur and revisit themselves, and it’s fascinating to be submerged in it. An exhibition titled Signals: How Video Transformed The World is full of the kind of artsy wanksy video installation stuff that, in a better mood, I’d have loved to have spent hours watching. But alas. Brief exhibitions of Ming Smith’s work and video game/interaction (Never Alone) are sweet but short. I take in some of the contemporary collection - more of the stuff that I’d like, and wish I’d been able to spend the time appreciating. Another time, with a better phone.